Disasters - a growing problem around the world.It's a fact - disasters are on the rise around the world. According to one estimate, the 1990s saw a tripling of disasters and a nine-fold increase in economic costs when compared with the 1960s. Climate change,earthquake,floods,storm increasing concentrations of people in vulnerable areas, and political and economic instability are all contributing factors.
The challenge is - how do we deal with this growing dilemma?

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Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Commuters Suffer As Trains Run 2-Hour Late

Commuting trouble carried over to Tuesday in the city, like the unceasing rain, with trains on the Main line of Central Railway witnessing delays of up to two hours after Kalyan station was flooded. Western Railway and the Harbour line of CR had a relatively smoother day with many services being late by a few minutes but none cancelled. On the other hand, till 5 pm, over 150 services had been cancelled on the Main line, inconveniencing hundreds. The trouble was continuing till evening, meaning more cancellations would have taken place. "It took around three hours for me to reach Santa Cruz. Normally, it does not take more than an hour-and-ahalf," said Trupti Parab, a secondyear student of law at SNDT University who stays in Dombivli. Water-logging tripped the signalling system at Kalyan junction from where the tracks bifurcate to Kasara and Karjat/Khopoli. After the incessant rains, water began covering the tracks around 8.20am. Soon, they were under 8 inches of water. As a precaution, the rail authorities decided to clamp the points and crossings, where trains interchange tracks, preventing smooth diversion of trains to Kasara and Karjat. For about two hours from 8.40am, the authorities ran services one after the other, without any diversion. The domino effect led to bunching of services and, consequently, major delays. Several long-distance trains were also held up. At the CST-end, commuters complained about services taking up to half an hour to reach the terminus from the penultimate Masjid station. "It took me almost 30 minutes to travel between these two stations," said Rakesh Yadav, a commuter. V A Malegaonkar, chief public relations officer, CR, said: "Services on the south-east and north-east sections (Karjat/Khopoli and Kasara) attained normalcy at about 10.30am and 11.30am, respectively. Train services did not come to a halt, but were running 40 to 45 minutes behind schedule." The mammoth delays forced many of the thousands-strong commuter force from the eastern suburbs to dump the idea of travelling to their workplaces or schools and colleges in Mumbai. But Rajmani Pandey, a Kalyan resident, could not afford to stay home. He had an appointment for an eye operation on Tuesday at JJ hospital. "It took almost 3 hours for me to reach Byculla, from where I took a taxi to JJ hospital. If I had missed today's appointment, I would have found it difficult to get another appointment," he said, narrating his harassment.